Grinding steering wheel...

[shizznats]

When i start the car cold (and RPMs are around 1500) and I turn my steering wheel left to right, the farther left or right I go, the more of a grinding noise I hear from the car. It does NOT sound good. Now, when the car warms up and revs drop to about 800RPM, turning the wheel left to right does not produce any grinding. Finally, once the car warmed up and was idling at 800RPMs, what i did is i stepped on the gas to rev the car to about 1500, turned the wheel, and it was grinding again. What could be causing this? Im thinking its either the p/s pump or something with the p/s fluid (which is right up to the full line). Note: there is no grinding when i turn the wheel left and right when the car is OFF. Im stumped... I just hope my rack is ok. if its the pump, i can live with that.

I should also mention that i recently changed my p/s pump because the old one was leaking (the donor one was used also)... when i changed the pump, i drained the resevoir and then just put the new pump on and filled it with the same fluid. Maybe air is in the system? but i did as the manual said and i turned the wheel back and forth with the car off and the p/s pump resevoir open, and then closed the resevoir and did the same with the car on. This was supposed to bleed the system.

Any help is much appreciated.

[jg09]

Yeah, I'd check the fluid in the pump (i.e. air? contaminants?)

[Reason]

This almost sounds like when I had bad axles. It's more of a cracking/popping noise vs. metal grinding.

[decke48]

the bleeding procedure is turning lock to lock 40 times with the wheels of the ground. if you keep the wheel at a constant point does it still make the noise? does the noise only happen when the wheel is a lock?..

[shizznats]

the bleeding procedure is turning lock to lock 40 times with the wheels of the ground. if you keep the wheel at a constant point does it still make the noise? does the noise only happen when the wheel is a lock?..

the grinding noise happens as im turning the wheel from the center to the right or left. Its really bad at lock, but it happens before lock also. I will try to bleed the system by jacking up the car, leaving it on, taking the resevoir cap off, and turning the wheel back n forth.

also, can i damage anything by driving the car as it is now?

[decke48]

the most you will loose the power steering assist. and its will be hard to turn the wheel.

[shizznats]

I drove somewhere today and noticed that when i turn the wheel to the right, the steering wheel vibrates. So when i got to where i was going, I left the car on, opened the p/s pump cap and turned the wheel lock to lock a bunch of times. that seemed to have helped, but then driving back, i had the same vibrating steering wheel... just this time with turning left. Im guessing i just moved the air in the system or something. I cant seem to get rid of it though.